Page 258 - WUTHERING HEIGHTS
P. 258
Wuthering Heights
’Oh, you see, Nelly, he would not relent a moment to
keep me out of the grave. THAT is how I’m loved! Well,
never mind. That is not MY Heathcliff. I shall love mine
yet; and take him with me: he’s in my soul. And,’ added
she musingly, ‘the thing that irks me most is this shattered
prison, after all. I’m tired of being enclosed here. I’m
wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be
always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and
yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but
really with it, and in it. Nelly, you think you are better
and more fortunate than I; in full health and strength: you
are sorry for me - very soon that will be altered. I shall be
sorry for YOU. I shall be incomparably beyond and above
you all. I WONDER he won’t be near me!’ She went on
to herself. ‘I thought he wished it. Heathcliff, dear! you
should not be sullen now. Do come to me, Heathcliff.’
In her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the
arm of the chair. At that earnest appeal he turned to her,
looking absolutely desperate. His eyes, wide and wet, at
last flashed fiercely on her; his breast heaved convulsively.
An instant they held asunder, and then how they met I
hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he caught
her, and they were locked in an embrace from which I
thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact,
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